Sabbath Traffic

Shabot traffic, or lack there of. On friday afternoon stores start to close and don't reopen until Sunday. Saturday, is truly the day of rest in this city. Religous people make all their food on friday so they don't have to work on Saturday. Some people drive on Shabbot, but in Jerusalem the city really shuts down. The picture below is of a usually busy highway with zero cars on it in the middle of the day(Saturday). When was the last time their were no cars on 580 or Shattuck Ave? This would be a good day for some street festival or marothon...

In honor of this day of rest I took an afternoon nap, something I don't often do but enjoyed.

Solar

Berkeley people will be happy to know that Israel is on top of their energy game. Almost every home in Jerusalem has a solar hot water heater on their roof. In fact solar furnace was one of the first words that new Hebrew speakers learn, doed shemesh. In a way it kinda reminded me of how in bad neighborhoods parked on the front lawns are new cars with glossy paint and big rims. Solar panels is something I associate with the rich so it was a surprise to see them on these grumbling stone buildings.

Unfortunately, Israel also seems to have a waste disposal problem. See mountain side covered in garbage below

Fresh Squeezed

Simple. Sweet. Street vendor with a few baskets of fruit on a table with a juicer. This business has low start up costs and probably yields high returns. Customer satisfaction as well. Maybe we will see these juice stands appearing in recession hit California. If you decide you want to go into this field just give me a free juice when I stop by. Picture from last friday when I was in the old city.

The Green Line

The Green line refers to the border between Israel and the other territories/arab countries. In this case the border between Israel and the West Bank.

Ulpan is going well, from the window of my classroom you can see the Wall. No not the western wall, the concrete wall that seperates the Israeli section of Jerusalem from the West Bank under control of the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization). One of the students in my class is from part of east Jerusalem and was late to class today because of a hold up at a checkpoint. I haven't been following the news but now that I'm in the middle east so close to the action I'm gonna try and stay current on the surrounding political climate.

You can find other maps, but my school is in the little green box. The purple and red line is the border.

Ulpan

Yesterday was my 5th day in Israel and my first day of the Ulpan. The Ulpan is an intensive Hebrew learning program. I was expecting the class to be other international students but it was less than half students. There were older men from Korea, a women from Ireland, an Italian, Arab. I tried talking to one of the Koreans but he didn't speak English so I guess our conversations will have to be in Hebrew.

Our textbook is filled with funny Israeli pictures, probably drawn by the cartoonists who didn't get hired by the New Yorker Magazine.

What is this Building?

A) Crusader Church

B) YMCA

C) Israeli Congress Building

D) Arabic Casino

E) All of the Above

Correct Answer= B) YMCA---- I was surprised also its YMCA's hostel. The interior of this building was also impressive. It made me wonder if the building used to be something else because it doesn't look like the typical YMCAs.

Below a picture of the Lobby

$$$

In Israel the money is called Sheckels. Its got the color range of the monopoly dollars but with way more detail.

Arab Toilet

Day 3 Old City/Liberty Bell Garden

The old city in Jerusalem is divided into a Christian, Jewish, Moslem and Armenian quarter. The stone walls and small streets packed with people are rich with history and kind of feel like a real life disney land . I was with a few other americans and we went through the Jewish section to the western wall and exited through the Damascus gate as seen below. We went through the Arab section of the old city by accident, which was like the Jewish area only no tourists and everyone specking arabic, I plan to avoid that area in the future.

Went to Liberty Bell Garden park after and hooped with some Ecuadorians and Columbians who were in Jerusalem studying to become priests.

Day 2 bus/market

I wake up at 7am and feeling rested. then I go for a quick run and meet up with some of the other new people and take a bus to this outdoor market called the "shook". I was expecting my first bus ride to be a suspenseful terrorist watch action sequence. It was surprisingly like a bus in the U.S. but with Israeli passangers and some hasidic Jews.

The market was_______ pick an adjective and it was all of the above, its basically like a huge outdoor/indoor flea market with amazing fresh produce, breads and stands

heres me looking jetlagged at this wonderful place

First Day

So at a 39.5 pound suitcase and a heavy backpack I by far was the lightest packed on the trip. I guess Americans really do have to much stuff. Later in the day there was a bus for students to a mall to feed further consumption.

Below is a picture of the airport, a possible tribute to the western wall in the true sand stone Israel theme

Travel

For lack of a better word, travel is a bitch, you got to get to airports early, deal with layovers, hostile customs agents, small seats, difficult peanut packaging etc... I really understand why all the future movies have the teleport machines. That being said 24 hours later I'm across the world, so we have it pretty good in the present.

Going Away

I suppose to go anywhere you need a place to go from. For me it was my friends and family in Oakland and Santa Cruz. As represented by the 2 houses. Peace ya'll I sure over the next few months I'm gonna miss most everything at least once.